Google +1 Sees Surge in Placement on Web's Largest Sites, but Facebook Still Dominant Social Plug-In

Silicon Valley, Calif – July 8, 2011 – BrightEdge, the world’s first enterprise class SEO platform that helps brands rise above the increasing clutter on the Web, said a site analysis of the front pages of the Web’s 10,000 largest sites shows a 33 percent spike in placement of the new Google +1 button in just the last few weeks. The report also shows that Facebook still enjoys a two-to-one lead in plug-in placement on these large sites over competing social networks. Nevertheless, the majority of brands today are still missing out on the massive traffic and engagement driver Facebook has become, as links to Facebook pages still appear on the front page of less than half of the web’s largest websites.

BrightEdge's new SocialShare Site Analysis found overall that Facebook is still the preferred social media platform for larger companies with more than 47 percent of sites linking to the network. Following just behind Facebook however, is integration of Twitter into site homepages, which was seen in 42 percent of sites measured. Overall the analysis points to a still much untapped opportunity for social platforms even on sites operated by some of the most sophisticated marketers and executives in the world.

As for social plug-ins on the front pages of these large sites, Facebook is still the dominant tool. Almost 20 percent of these large sites include plugin tools offered by Facebook. Despite the surge in the last few days, Google +1 is only offered by 4.4 percent of these large sites, up from 3.6 percent in June. Plug-ins offered by Twitter are displayed on 3.4 percent of the front pages analyzed.

"Overall, this inaugural version of our SocialShare Site Analysis shows huge opportunity for brands to engage more socially," said Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge. "Fewer than half the largest sites on the Web offer any kind of social link at all on their front page and these sites represent a massive slice of Internet traffic on any given day. We would expect to see a land grab effort this year as plug-ins vie for placement on this very valuable Web real estate."

Another notable stat from this first iteration of SocialShare Site Analysis is that YouTube remains a popular social tool for major brands and companies. Almost 17 percent of the 10,000 largest sites on the Web have links to YouTube video on their front page (although this number declined slightly in June to 1,675 sites).

The SocialShare Site Analysis will be a monthly SEO report that tracks the presence and penetration of social sharing tools on the world’s largest 10,000 sites. It will be available at www.brightedge.com/socialshare, where marketers can also register to have the report delivered by their favorite social sharing tool or email.